CORTLAND, N.Y. – With the women's tennis conference championships coming up this weekend, the State University of New York (SUNYAC) has decided to feature the Geneseo women's tennis dynasty over the past six years as the focus of this week's throwback Thursday article.
In 2011 and for the first time since 2009, Geneseo women's tennis became SUNYAC champions. That would become a reoccurring theme for years to come as the head coach at the time, Jim Chen lead the Knights to consecutive conference titles through his final season in 2014. Chen and his program accomplished a lot over that span including being named the SUNYAC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year four times, and making it to the second round of the NCAA DIII Women's Tennis Tournament in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
From 2011-2014, Chen coached thirty-seven SUNYAC All-Conference first team athletes and three of those are among four players in conference history to become four-time SUNYAC first team All-Conference players: Sarah Shields (2009-2012), Dexuan Yuan (2011-2014) and Amanda Rosati (2011-2014).
After Chen's departure, Geneseo hired Jason Stephens as its head coach and the program didn't seem to miss a beat. The Knights won the SUNYAC title and received a bid to the NCAA DIII women's tennis tournament in the 2015 and 2016 seasons, reaching the second round both times.
Geneseo has the most conference titles among active SUNYAC members and are 2-0 in SUNYAC West Division play so far this season. They have their sights set on a seventh straight conference championship, eleventh in program history, as well as a sixth straight NCAA DIII women's tennis tournament birth.
This season however, has shown much more parody among the teams in the conference. Is this the year we will see another team smiling behind the coveted yellow SUNYAC champion banner? Or will the Knights run the table again and win Geneseo its seventh consecutive SUNYAC title?
Check out the 2017 Bracket, follow us on Twitter (@sunyacsports), and add us on Snapchat (sunyac) for live updates from this weekend's SUNYAC women's tennis championship to find out!
